Nasir Salim has found a creative way around the smoking ban. The Chicago Tribune reports that Salim “owns four Dhuwan hookah [Middle Eastern water pipe] lounges in Chicago and the suburbs that all opened within the last two years.”

He said that all four would serve only prepackaged food and soft drinks after the ban goes into effect. One lounge, in Lisle, had a kitchen, but Salim is closing the kitchen and opening a restaurant next door to the hookah lounge. “It’s fully compliant,” Salim said. “People can go eat at the restaurant, and after they’re done, come next door and smoke hookah.”

One can buy 3 Vapes at 180Smoke.ca and enjoy it in the open as smoking will still be permitted in retail tobacco stores, defined in the Smoke Free Illinois Act as, “a retail establishment that derives more than 80% of its gross revenue from the sale of loose tobacco, plants, or herbs and cigars, cigarettes, handmade glass pipe, and other smoking devices for burning tobacco and related smoking accessories and in which the sale of other products is merely incidental.” It can’t just be a section of the restaurant, but would have to be a freestanding store. Still, if you think about places where many bars are, it would not be difficult to have a restaurant/bar right next door to a freestanding tobacco store.

Since the mere consumption of food and drink doesn’t have any effect on the gross revenue of a tobacco shop, I wonder if Salim’s idea could be taken a step further. Can food or beverages be taken from one establishment to the other? Of course, you can’t take alcoholic beverages off the premises of the licensed establishment, but is there any prohibition on patrons buying food and/or non-alcoholic beverages in a restaurant, then voluntarily taking them next door to the tobacco shop to eat them while having a cigarette or cigar?